//------------------------------// // I Love a Good Raid // Story: Don't Fear the Reaper // by Literature //------------------------------// Don't Fear the Reaper A fan-fiction by: Literature Chapter 1: I Love a Good Raid Unit 511 waited impatiently with a large force of marines at the bottom of a cliff. He hated waiting. He wanted to go. He wanted to move. He wanted to kill. Even though the Protoss were mainly robots, it was still enjoyable to see them crumble to the ground after focused fire from his twin pistols. He darted around the group impatiently, seeing four other Reapers doing the same. He let out a growl, and jumped towards a marine with the mark of a Sergeant on his shoulder. "When we gonna go?" He asked impatiently, being echoed in his sentiment by another Reaper, Unit 127, who had sidled up beside him. The Sergeant sighed, he hated dealing with the freaks, "we'll get going soon," he promised slowly, articulating every word so that the brain damaged former-criminal heard what he said clearly, "commander will give us our orders soon." The Reaper jumped as he heard a voice speak to him in his helmet, noting the four others do the same. The orders were simple, "Jump into the enemy base and wreak havoc." "Havoc," Unit 511 said gleefully, "my favorite word." He and the other Reapers quickly ran up to the wall that separated them from the enemy base. He activated his jump pack, leaping over it, and rushed towards the familiar Nexus at the top. He felt a psionic pressure in his mind, turning to see a High Templar waving its hands towards him menacingly, chanting in the Protoss language. The reaper grinned as he charged the Templar, shouting something he had heard zealots say before he killed them, also adding necessary Terran lingo, "Haru neladan, motherfucker!" He cried, unleashing the fury of his dual pistols on the Templar's shields, which quickly evaporated under his onslaught. He laughed as the weapons tore through its body, sending it falling backwards and vanishing in a flash of light, like Protoss were known to do. "That's what I'm talkin' about!" he cried, copying marauders he had seen doing the exact same thing as he was going to do next. Throwing bombs at gateways. Well, the marauders didn't throw their bombs, like he did, they shot them out of their huge armor like the pansies they are. He let out a laugh at an Immortal trying to target him, missing all of its shots due to his speed. He jumped on a cliff above the wall that prevented his fellow marines from entering the base, out of sight of the photon cannons, and began throwing his charges at the gateway to allow passage of his comrades into the base, laughing as the matter constructor made more bombs for him to throw as the gateway began to spark. He laughed maniacally. "Hit and RUN!" he cried, throwing one last bomb at the gateway, following its path as he jumped down and threw another bomb at the photon cannon behind the gateway, which was just locking in to him. He felt the plasma bolt burn his flesh underneath the armor, but ignored it. His combat drugs could fix that. He ran towards the photon cannon, in hope of this strategy causing it to flinch or otherwise not be able to fire at him. Unfortunately, the Protoss did not program their turrets to flinch, so he was hit by a second blast as he ran through the ruins of the gateway, which began sparking furiously, as he threw a final charge at the photon cannon, causing it to lose its shields as it fired another shot at him. Time seemed to slow as rubble from the gateway began being sucked into the core. He tried to resist the pull of the hole opening up in the gateway, but couldn't. He gulped, "this ain't good." It was the middle of the Day court, and Celestia was listening to the petitioners protesting the oppressive police force in Stalliongrad. It is an issue that has only recently been brought to her attention, as communication between the city and Equestria's capital, Canterlot, was limited at best, and she just now realizes that all exports were being first surveyed by the police force. She took all of the protests into account, merging it together in her mind, like the puzzle it was. Everything fit together, and there was something she needed to do about it. "Your request has been acknowledged, and will be taken into immediate consideration of a new establishment of a police force," she said smoothly, thinking of how she was going to execute that, when suddenly she felt a massive magical surge in the very room she was in. She winced, lowering her head for a couple seconds, before quickly casting a true-sight spell, allowing her to see the flow of magic in the air. She opened her eyes, knowing the ponies in the room saw them as glowing white, and looked around the room. As in all Equestria, there was ambient magic all around her, colored slightly darker than the magic resisting enchantments around the throne room. But, there was a large anomaly in the center of the room, right inside one of the petitioners. She gasped as the hole in the magic grew darker and darker, until it was black. She ended her true-sight spell, ordering her guards to evacuate the premises of all ponies save for herself, as she began charging her horn for an extremely large shield spell. Her guards escorted the civilians outside, and she could hear the door shut behind them as she casted one of the most powerful barrier spells in Equestria, the Triplex Magicae Clypeum, in the air around the anomaly, that was now affecting the very fabric of space time. She charged her horn again and threw up another Triplex Magicae Clypeum around the first barrier, panicking as the anomaly grew in magic more powerful than even her own. She called upon the power of the sun itself, putting it into her horn, sweating from the raw magical surge from her horn. She casted Triplex Magicae Clypeum again and again around the anomaly, her relief growing as it looked like she was going to have enough magic to seal away the explosion. Her many golden barriers were beginning the affect the surrounding environment, threatening to cause a surge of magic that she would not be able to control. She was about to cast one of the last three necessary spells to contain it, when the anomaly pushed outward. She felt cuts begin to open in her horn from the usage of too much magic, wincing at the pain, but continuing to cast. She had to keep her subjects safe. She gasped as time slowed around her, taking a few seconds to charge up her horn more for another spell, as she saw the magical explosion rip through one of the most powerful spells in Equestria like it was nothing. She saw the pressure of the explosion beginning to slow as it reached the outside of the many spells, feeling each spell's destruction like a physical blow to her horn. She screamed and casted one final barrier spell. But it would not be enough. She could only stare as the explosion ripped through her second to last barrier spell, showing no signs of slowing. She closed her eyes. This was the end. There was no way she could contain it. She looked down at the ground as the world began to glow purple. Wait, purple? The explosion was black. She looked to her right, to see a white unicorn in purple armor do exactly what she just did, but with more force and speed. The explosion ripped through his barrier spells like they were paper, barely slowing with each one. But slowing nonetheless. Shining Armor casted a final barrier of rune-covered magic shielding that stopped the slowed blast in its tracks. He panted slightly, as the anomaly was sucked back into a singe point, which quickly grew to a sphere. The sphere seemed to suck in light, distorting the reality around it, as Celestia and Shining Armor shared a look, both too low on energy to even begin to stop it. Then the sphere exploded harmlessly, sending shrapnel flying against Shining Armor's shield, until the explosion of golden material stopped, and the hole dissappeared. All that was left as evidence was a large amount of golden shrapnel. And a red metal figure lying on the ground.